Worldwide News

Last October marked the fiftieth anniversary of Nostra aetate (“In Our Time”), the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions. There were celebrations in Australia on the signal importance of this document. Commonweal (a Catholic Magazine) has devoted a great deal of space over the years to explaining and exploring the significance of Nostra aetate for Catholic-Jewish relations. Some theologians understood this document opened the door for the Church to accept non-Christian religions. Other theologians did not. You may read the Commonweal article here.

Pope Francis once said he wished he could spend a day as an ordinary person and go get a pizza without being recognized. After reading the new The Vatican Cookbook, though, you may wish you could spend a day as Pope Francis to enjoy the delicacies gracing his dinner table.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis on Sunday called for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty, saying the commandment “You shall not kill” was absolute and equally valid for the guilty as for the innocent.

Religious groups must promote Chinese culture and become more compatible with socialism, top Politburo official Yu Zhengsheng has told faith leaders, as Beijing circulated orders for retired party cadres to shun all religious activity.

A village council in central India has fined four people for practicing Christianity and is closely watching them to prevent them continuing to do so. The Dahar village council in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh, fined the four 5,000 rupees (US$75) each.

(Vatican City) The annual meeting between the officials of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID) and the staff of the Office for Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation (IRDC) of the World Council of Churches (WCC), took place from 3 to 4 February in Geneva, Switzerland. Appropriately this was during Interfaith Harmony Week.

Since 2013, a number of secularist writers, bloggers and publishers in Bangladesh have been killed or seriously injured in attacks perpetrated by Islamist extremists. The attacks have taken place at a time of growing tension between Bangladeshi secularists, who want the country to maintain its secularist tradition of separation of religion and state, and Islamists, who want an Islamic state. The US Commission has written to the Secretary of State seeking Humanitarian Parole for Bangladeshi Writers.

AIGARH: To mark the bicentenary celebrations of the birth of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in 2017, Aligarh Muslim University has opened Centre for Interfaith Understanding to foster a culture of liberal views and tolerance. The centre was inaugurated on Republic Day at Sir Syed Academy in the university.